After a long wait for all the equipment to arrive and waiting for clear skies, I finally had an opportunity to get my feet wet in some DSO imaging. So under an almost full Moon I got a chance to test out the new camera and equipment. The seeing was good and there was a mild breeze around.
All images were taken with my Celestron 8SE SCT f/6.3 1260mm on a Alt-Az mount and Canon 450D at ISO 1600. Stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS3.
So here they are,
1. M42 – 4 x 30sec exposures
2. Eta Carinae – 1 x 30sec exposure
3. Jewel Box – 1 x 30sec exposure
4. Omega Centauri – 1 x 30sec exposure
5. M83 – 2 x 30sec exposures
6. Tarantula Nebula - 2 x 30sec exposures
Thanks for looking and any advice on how to impove my images will be much appreciated.
Congrats on your first light Matt. As far as processing, I found that Eta Carinae was the easiest to practice all the different tools in PS.
Just import your image of Eta into PS and push the curve level up and you will see the hidden data in your image appear. Then adjust the colour saturation and just keep on practicing with other tools such as levels to darken the background after using curves .. That's how we started out.
Don't hesitate to ask any questions there's loads of fellow imagers only to pleased to help.
I ran my Eta Carinae image through PS and played around with it. I was amazed how much hidden data there was in that image.
This is what I ended up with. For only a 30 second image I am very pleased with it. If I had captured more frames and stacked them. The noise in the picture would disappear.
When you open your image in Noiseware go to the default bar blue arrow at the top then scroll down the drop down menu to Weaker Noise and then hit go.
Noiseware will automatically take out the noise in the image then save it. Sometimes it's a little harsh and removes some detail and colour which you can restore by taking the image back to PS and add a little colour back, but until you start stacking it's worth using
When you open your image in Noiseware go to the default bar blue arrow at the top then scroll down the drop down menu to Weaker Noise and then hit go.
Noiseware will automatically take out the noise in the image then save it. Sometimes it's a little harsh and removes some detail and colour which you can restore by taking the image back to PS and add a little colour back, but until you start stacking it's worth using
Give it a try
Barb
Thanks for your help Barb.
I downloaded Noiseware and ran my Eta Carinae image through it.
Noiseware got rid of all the noise in the image. It looks great now.
great result matty, I am surprised at the amount of detail coming up from the eta shot (what hidden treasures)- well done
You are doing so well seeing as though you shoot on Alt/Az
First Light with the 450D
I'll probably be asking you for advice.
